Lag Baomer: The First Revelation of Kabbalah - Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

What book is going to lead us out of this exile that we're suffering [Music] in? There is a very special interesting day in the Jewish calendar that comes around every year. It's the 18th day of the month of er which is just about uh a month after Passover. And this is a very unique day. It's a mystical day because on this day a great rabbi by the name of Rabbi Shiman Bario otherwise known as the Rashi. He passed away and yet on the day that he passed away became a day of celebration, a day of parades, a a day of outings, a day that we burn bonfires. He is buried in Mount Meiron in Israel. And every year thousands upon thousands make pilgrimage, go up to the mountain and they play music and they dance 24 hours a day celebrating his life. Why are we celebrating his life on the day that he died? Usually when a person passes away, it's a sad day. It's a morbid day. It's a day of loss. We should be sitting on the ground and mourning but yet in this case we are dancing, we are parading. We are having bonfires with music all night long. What's the celebration all about? So let me share with you who Rabbi Shiman Bario was. He lived in the 2n century CE. He was living during the times of the Roman rulership. As a matter of fact, he had to flee and hide because the Roman king put out a sentence of death because they considered him rebelling against the Roman government with teaching of the Torah. So, Rabbi Shimo had to hide in a cave for 12 years with his son Rabbi Alazar. During that time, he composed what's known as Cabala, mysticism. During those 12 years, living miraculously in a cave just by surviving in water and some carob trees that were growing near his cave. He was able to divorce himself from the physical limitations of the world and delve into the spiritual parts of the world. He was able to reveal secrets and mysticism that has existed but was never revealed. He wrote the book the Zohar otherwise known as the Cabala which enlightens the depths of mysteries that existed in the world. Up until that moment it remained concealed and remained a secret. The concept of mysticism, the concept of looking below the surface has not been revealed to anyone but a few prophets. But Rabbi Shiman Bario during those 12 years, he inscribed and wrote the book the Zohar that we have been enjoying till today. And it has been noted that it is with this book is going to bring us out of the 2,000year dark exile we have been living in. It will bring the world to a new world order which would be with the revelation of the Messiah. As a matter of fact, the holy Balshamto had a outer body experience one day on the Jewish New Year's. And when his soul ascended up to heaven, he was able to reach the gates of where the Messiah was and he asked the Messiah, "When are you going to come? The world is suffering so much. There's so much war. There's so much hate. There's so much jealousy. There's so much strife and illness in this world. God promised us a perfected world. When is that going to happen? And the Messiah answered him. He says, "When you take the teachings of mysticism, the wellsp springsings of the Bible, of the Torah, and you teach it to the whole world, and everyone knows about it, that is when I'm going to come." And thus has begun the journey of spreading the teachings of mysticism globally everywhere. just like we are doing now. I'm teaching you and it's going global. Some of you are in far-f corners of the world that are studying and learning right at this moment. So yes, by us studying and learning and talking about mysticism, we are truly bringing the whole world a step closer to its perfection. And that is what's so special about this day. that Rabbi Shim Bay, the author of the Zor and the Cabala, taught us that not everything we see is what it is. There is so much that goes on below the surface. Each one of us has a soul, a godly soul that sustains us. So when you look at a person, we don't look at the physical extremities, but rather we focus on their soul. Who are they really? Who are they representing? What level godly soul do they have? When you look at another person, you look into the eyes, the windows of the soul, you'll appreciate the person, not what appears to the eye, but who they really are. And all of a sudden there is a an intrinsic connection and bonding with each other. That is the concept of looking below the surface. When you go about your daily activities and you find yourself veering to the right or to the left, either on purpose or by accident, you think to yourself, "This isn't just by chance, but this is by divine providence. There's so much more going on than I realize. There's so much more that's happening in the world below the surface that I I cannot take what's happening and reveal to me at its price value, but rather look a little deeper. Think why is God putting me in this position? Why did I just go through what I went through? the good, the bad, the ugly. There's a reason, there's a purpose for everything because nothing happens by chance. Nothing happens by accident. Everything happens for a purpose. And that is what mysticism is about. That's what Cababala is all about. It it really breaks down the world that we realize the world was created from four different elements with fire, with sand, with water, and with air. Those are four levels, four elements that the way God created everything in this world, everything in this world has one of those four elements. When we break it down, we get to appreciate there's so much more in this world than it's than what the eye meets. And that's what Raim taught us, encouraged us to study Kabala and to study mysticism, to study the Torah, and to realize that so many layers that are concealed that are waiting to be revealed. And yes, you can do that. There are many traditions that we go out into the fields during this day. We look at God's beautiful creations. We look at the world that God created and realize there's so much more to it that we take it so much for granted, not realizing how special this world is. Before he died, Rab said, "The day I die, I want it to be a day of celebration because that is the day that I completed my mission." And there's no greater joy than completing your mission on this world. And I have been through a lot said he went through his life's journey to be able to reveal the cabala, the mysticism to bring it to the world. And the day I die, I have accomplished my mission. And I'm so happy to be able to return my soul to God because I did what I came here to do. Thus, we make the day of ba, which is the 33rd day of the Omr, which are the days that we count between Passover and Shàuot. It's the 33rd day that became his day of celebration. It is also interestingly a day of when Rabbi Aka one of the greatest leaders the author of the Talmud he had 22,000 students who were plagued but the plague stopped at this day and he taught us the very famous saying to make that part of a daytoday life. Love your fellow as yourself. That was his tagline. That was his lifeline that he taught his students and taught us. He had 22,000 students that this line is what we have to live with every day. As a matter of fact, I say it every single morning before I begin my morning prayers. I say I take upon myself to be able to love my fellow as myself. That is what the whole Judaism is about. That's what the whole Torah is about. Even the mystical part of the Torah is to love your fellow as yourself. And that's when we imply the teachings of Rabi Schum and we realize that everything that meets the I there's much more to it. And the more you connect with the subliminal, the m the more you connect with the mystical part of life, the more will be revealed to you because your soul gravitates to mysticism. Cuz your soul gets nourished by studying the Torah, by studying mysticism, and by studying Cabala. And when you study cabala, you need to study the kosher cabala because many have jumped on the bandwagon and calling the teachings Cabala, which really it's not based on the true mysticism. It's not based on the Torah. But when you study Cabala from a rabbi, an ordained traditional rabbi who's able to teach you the depths of the Cabala, then you will see a whole new world revealed to you. It's almost like bringing color to a black and white picture. Cuz we could go through life and everything may seem black and white, but imagine what it's like to bringing color to a black and white picture. Imagine bringing 3D dimension to a colored picture. That is what Cababala is. And that is what Rabbi Shimai brought and revealed to the world. And truly with his teachings, the more we delve into it, the more we allow ourselves to study mysticism, the more we study the mystical part, the greater we're going to bring the world closer to its completion, closer to the revelation of the Messiah, which we pray and we hope that that happens speedily in our days. So the next opportunity you have to start studying mysticism and cabala, you're not only doing it for yourself and your family, you're doing it for the whole world. God bless you. God loves you.